As part of the ongoing trade conflict between the EU and the United States, the Commission applied punitive tariffs on USD 4 billion worth of imports from the US in November 2020. The extra tariffs range from 15⁰% to 25⁰%.

The imports on which tariffs are levied include raw materials and semi-finished products which are used by manufacturers in the EU. This means that EU production may face higher costs, especially in cases where there is no European substitute for the affected products.

1. Why were tariffs applied on imported raw materials needed by EU manufacturers, including products with little or no possibility of being substituted with EU-sourced materials?

2. Does the Commission have a clear overview of the cost of the tariffs to EU businesses? If so, what might this cost be?

3. How will the Commission mitigate the impact of increased costs for EU businesses?

See the question here.

Answer given by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission here.